On Saturday’s Major Spoilers Podcast (#167): Doctor Who – The End of Time

If you haven’t figured it out by now, we usually record the Saturday Major Spoilers Podcast on Tuesday evening, when we record the regular weekly show.Â This weekend, Matthew and Stephen will be discussing the final three episodes of the David Tennant run as the good Doctor.

As always, the Major Spoilers Podcast is nothing without comments from great readers and listeners like you. You can use the comment section below, drop us a voice mail by calling (785) 727-1939, or record your comments and send it as an MP3 file in an email to podcast@majorspoilers.com.

Hereâ€™s your chance to be heard on the show! Give us your thoughts on the Doctor Who series. Only the most awesome comments (good or bad) make it on the show, so get your stuff to us right away!

About Author

Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment.
You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...

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9 Comments

I’m sad to see Tennant go but these last three episodes were truly some of his finest. The Waters of Mars is easily one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes, almost entirely because of Tennant. He made The Doctor terrifying, something I don’t think anyone else could have done. It truly cemented Tennant as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Doctor ever.

After the mess that was the season 4 finale, which got to caught up in giving us sappy goodbye to all the side characters rather than tell a good story, The End of Time was a good story and a fitting end to the character. The Doctor’s outburst when realised Wilfred was stuck almost brought me to tears and thats no east feat. Again this is not a moment that I could imagine being pulled off by anyone else.

While these last three episodes were extremely dramatic and powerful at times one thing maintained till the end. The sense of fun. Tennant was just pure fun to watch all the way to the end. This looks to be something that will continue with Matt Smith, the minute or so of him that we got was incredibly fun and I ended the episode with huge grin on my face (interestingly enough despite the fact that the entire episode was written by Russell T. Davies, the showrunner seasons 1-4 and these specials, all of Matt Smith’s diaglogue was written by Stephen Moffat who has taken over as showrunner from here on out).

Oh also one day the doctor has to played by simon pegg so he can finally be ginger

I absoluty loved these final three episodes of The Tenth Doctor overall. It is fitting that his final stories are some of this best for a Doctor which had basically been one of the best runs since the Tom Baker era. The Water of Mars, I thought, was pretty radical in what they did with The Doctor’s personality and pushing what The Doctor could and couldn’t do and the consequences of that in the end. However, The End of Time really managed to top anything the Tenth Doctor had perviously did. Previous Monsters? check. Old companions? check. Eailer plot points explained? check. Then of course there was the real star of it all: The Master. I doubt any Master, not even Rodger Degaldo, could have topped what John Simm did in this story. His Master truely was insane, managing to be both horribly evil and in some ways a figure of pity. He did what no other Master did for me: I felt a bit sorry for him. That is how good his performance was.
The other strong point of the last story had to be the regeneration. The last few scenes give high hopes for Matt Smith, as well as the trailer that followed the episode. So farewell, Tenth Doctor..it has been a fun ride!

The Waters of Mars was superb, loved how all was slowly going to Hell (the young engineer going “just one drop”) and the Captain knew she had to die for humanity to prosper and was willing to do it, but the Doctor just had to try and change history and for a moment he seemed more like the Master then the Doctor. “The Timelord Victorious”

The End of Times was a great final special for Tennant, loved the subtle indications of something being amiss from the get go (the narrator calls x-mas a pagan celebration, not a Christain one, something only an alien would say). My favorite quote came from the Doctor and then the Master: “Get out of the way”

The saddest moment was when he visited his close friends and helped them a final time and how they all knew, without him telling them, that this was the last time they were gonna seem him…

I completely agree with what the others above me have said. However, I was disappointed in the return of the Time Lords. They were there and gone so fast it was hardly noticable. I know the axiom is always leave them wanting more but Timothy Dalton showed up, told the master “No, you can’t come”, and then was zapped.

I also was not a fan of the tenth Doctor last line.

Now after spitting in the punch, I loved all three of the episodes and the whole of David Tennets run (including season 4). #11 has big shoes to fill.

Having recently watched Logopolis, I was little put off that a fall from lesser high triggered the 4th Doctor’s regeneration into the 5th Doctor, where the 10th Doctor’s fall from the spacecraft resulted in scrapes.

I am hopeful for the 11th Doctor’s adventures with the return of River Song and the Weeping Angels.

Just FYI, the BBC website has an official commentary track for both parts of the End of Time, by show runner and episode writer Russell T Davies in which he offers a lot of interesting info on the story development and production. Of special interest is the discussion of the identity of the woman who keeps appearing to Wilfred with premonitions of what is to come as well as an exploration and explanation of the Master’s new powers.

As for me, I thought the episodes – for all of their faults – were a lot of fun and a genuinely touching send off for the tenth Doctor, who will be sorely missed. (Spoiler ahead) The ending suffered from a bit of ‘Return of the King-itis’, but that brief dialogue-free moment between the Doctor and Sarah Jane was completely, totally devastating!

I must be one of the only people who HATED waters of mars. It was sooo contrived and no one behaved naturally. Stranger comes to base, they hold him prisoner, then things go to hell but they all believe everything he says, to the point of killing themselves because of the stupidest reason ever. So it HAD to happen so humans would go to the stars because her descendant would be inspired? No one else would do that, ever? But her mysteriously getting back to earth did the same thing as long as she died? Stupid. It would have been much easier and more dramatic if it had been something else that made sense. Don’t even get me started on the stupid standing around doing nothing, the huge hallways that needed to be brought up to mars too, so why not smaller shorter ones, oh yeah, running scenes, and then the two who took off after getting back to earth, so yeah, only she needed to die, he could have taken everyone else to safety. :P

Blasphemer! I’ll get the rope, you guys find a good sturdy tree branch…
Seriously thou, it’s the Doctor he can convince/negociate with anyone willing to listen.

Think of it this way, if Columbus hadn’t “discovered” America (yes it’s a continent not actually a country, in reality you guys are all “Statians”, an American is anyone who lives in the continent of America) would someone else have? Sure, but moving the time frame even a little would have changed history, the arrival of Cortez coincided with an Aztec legend and he was mistaken for the human reincarnation of Quetzacoatl. That played a big role in the Aztec’s defeat, now what would happen if Cortez had arrives a few years later with no prophesy to protect him? would the Americas still have been conquered? Would we still be speaking Inuit/Mayan/mapuche? I don’t know…

As for her death, she had already committed “suicide” by blowing the station up, this time around the only difference is that people know why. If anything it must have pushed her grand-daughter harder to honor her memory.